Need
by Kgirl1
Summary: Every leader needs his second-in-command. When the lights go out, the cars shut down, and the uniforms come off, she's still there for him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! I am so excited to post this; it's an idea I've treasured for FOREVER and while it originally started out as a oneshot, it quickly became over 45,000 words (oops). I was trying to hold off on posting it until after I had finished Trapped but I honestly couldn't wait, I wanted to share this with you all so badly (it's so very full of *squee*). Never fear, I still plan on finishing Trapped. This one is a little unlike most things I've done before, and that's why there isn't a description (I'm not spoiling ANYTHING but I will put one up eventually), so feel free to let me know what you think. I am super excited about it and I hope you all like it! This first chapter takes place right after 'Spawn Hunters'.**

When you're part of an elite defense force that prevents evil aliens from conquering the planet and has to work on the Multiverse's schedule, there aren't too many things you can count on. But besides grabbing pizza after just about any mission, the Battle Force 5 did have one tradition that they never allowed themselves to break.

Specifically, Meatball Monday. With Agura and Sherman working magic in the kitchen, their teammates always had an Italian feast for dinner that night. The only tough part was the waiting. Vert, Zoom, Spinner, Stanford, AJ and Tezz sat assembled at the table. The kitchen and dining room were separated by a long counter that came about four feet up from the floor, and cabinets that hung down filled with dishes, which left a two-foot window of communication in between the two. These stretched almost all the way across the room, but left a wide doorway in between the counter and wall. It was designed so conveniently that communication between the two rooms, of not only voices but smells, required little effort, but both sections could be made private if the need arose. The boys at the table were worn out from an unsuccessful attempt to destroy Kytren's respawn chamber, but nothing could deter them from savoring the mouthwatering aroma of Sherman's homemade meatballs. Even Tezz was lured out of hiding at the prospect of the one meal he actually _chose_ to eat with his teammates. Any other night Vert would have to order the scientist out from his lab, but Meatball Monday, for a variety of reasons, was just special. However, the captain seemed especially distraught at the moment, and was rubbing his neck in agitation.

Zoom was the first to ask. "Vert, you okay?"

"I _might_ be, if _Spinner_ hadn't given me whiplash from his _delightful_ driving of the Saber today…" Vert growled pointedly at his tech associate.

"Hey, in my defense, I don't drive," Spinner folded his arms. "That's little bro's thing, right little bro?" He turned his shoulder back towards the kitchen, and Sherman's thumbs-up appeared in the opening.

"It was practically a racing video game!" Vert scoffed. "Aren't you supposed to be good at those?"

Spinner's mouth snapped open, armed with a comeback, but it quickly withered under his leader's angry glare.

"And speaking of people being good at things, maybe we should make containment units last longer than, oh, I don't know, fifteen minutes!" The Crimson One turned his scowl onto Tezz.

"Don't tell me you're blaming the man who _fixed_ that crude device," the Russian clenched his jaw.

"Fixed?" Sherman's voice challenged from the kitchen.

"It would not have so much as functioned without my modifications!" Tezz snapped in the direction of the cook.

"I don't care _who's_ responsible for the design flaw." Vert halted the dispute with a severe glare. "I just don't want it happening again."

"Maybe if you had sent _me_ in to the Zone instead of Tezz…" Stanford grumbled offhandedly.

"I'm sorry, weren't you busy vanquishing your dead uncle's imaginary ghost, or something?" Vert huffed.

"He is _not_ imaginary!" Stanford defended. "And I still would have done a better job than Zoom and Agura! All they did was get stuck behind a rock pile, and the Tangler lost a bloody wheel!"

"Hey!" Zoom looked offended. In the kitchen, Agura rolled her eyes, but stayed out of the dispute.

"Look, nobody was on their game today, alright?" Vert pushed back his chair, stood straight up, and folded his arms. "We made some mistakes and a couple of bad calls, and maybe without them we would have destroyed Kytren's respawn chamber. And this isn't just a fluke; we've been slacking for a while now. I don't know what's going on with you guys, but our mission is still just as important as it was on day one. Everyone needs to pull it together, _now_. I had better see a-games tomorrow and _nothing_ less, got it?"

"Get our shit together or risk the fate of Earth. Got it," Spinner muttered under his breath. Vert gave him a glare that could have frozen Kyburi's core before stalking angrily out.

"Well, bloody hell," Stanford remarked, once their leader's footsteps were out of hearing range.

"Geez, what a douche canoe!" Spinner added. "What's eating him?"

"We did our best," Zoom mumbled, feeling the full force of his leader's disappointment.

"Maybe he needs help pulling that stick out of his—"

"Boys! _Please!_" Agura stood in the doorway with her arms folded. "Can we _not _do this at the dinner table?"

"Well, maybe if Tezz hadn't felt the need to stick his little gauntlet into everything, our containment unit would have actually worked," Sherman grumbled, slipping in from behind her.

"Chush' sobach'ya," Tezz coughed. Agura raised an eyebrow at him. As Sherman set bowls of pasta on the table, the huntress put her hands on her hips, narrowed her eyes, and subsequently entered full-scale lecture mode. Her teammates wilted under the familiar stance before she had even opened her mouth.

"Alright, I don't even know what a douche canoe IS, but everyone had better get their language under control right now, bilingualists included! Vert may be our leader but he's still our friend, so if anybody has a problem with him they can either talk to him or through me." She arched her eyebrows, daring any brave soul to challenge her verdict. "I'm not dealing with this behind-the-back crap and I'm definitely not dealing with it over team dinner. Got it?"

"Got it," her teammates grumbled in accord.

"Great." Agura smiled in satisfaction and took her place at the table. "Let's eat."

Pasta and meatballs were dished out and Vert's lecture, along with Agura's addition, was quickly forgotten. The only reminder was his empty chair.

"You know what we should do tonight, guys?" Stanford started up conversation once most of the team had finished eating (Sherman and AJ were discreetly munching away at third helpings).

"What?" Spinner's eyes brightened in interest.

"We should go out. Hit the town! All we ever do is hang out at the Hub and go to Zeke's. We should see what the tiny, tiny, _tiny_ little municipality of Handler Corners has to offer," Stanford said. There were a few murmurs of assent.

"It sure would be more fun than hanging out here with Sir Stick-in-the-mud…" Spinner grumbled.

"I, for one, would greatly benefit from a cultural study of such a quaint American town," Tezz said.

"Yeah, we've been cooped up practicing this containment unit mission for weeks!" Zoom added.

"A little exploring couldn't hurt," Sherman agreed through a mouthful.

"And Vert's already seen everything a hundred times, so no way will he want to come!" Spinner realized with a cheer. "Agura, whaddya say?" He looked eagerly to Agura, who, too distracted by thoughts of Vert, had only been half-listening.

"About going out?" She enquired. In Vert's absence, Agura remembered, she automatically became the boss, even over social affairs (although she usually was anyway. Her teammates often joked that while Vert was the leader, Agura was in charge). "Um, you guys can go if you want. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on."

"Aww, come on," AJ cajoled. "It'll be totally fun!"

Agura shook her head. "Thanks, guys, but I'm kind of worried about Vert."

"Well I'm worried about him too," Spinner cut in, and everyone looked to him in total disbelief. The gamer cracked a slow grin. "Worried that the stick he's got stuck up his butt is gonna come out his mouth one day!" He cracked the punchline, and received a few chuckles.

Agura just rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna hang back. You guys have fun. Don't stay out too late or do anything too dumb, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," Spinner saluted.

"Sherman?" Agura raised an eyebrow at likely the most responsible member of the group.

"I'll keep them out of trouble," he chuckled. At the cue to leave, the boys began standing up, pushing their chairs in and placing their dishes in the dishwasher. Agura smiled in no small amount of pride; they had been trained so well. As the cars roared out of the Hub, a plan formed in her mind. Agura paced the kitchen for a while in thought, and eventually summoned her courage and went to knock on Vert's door.

It slid open, and he looked none too happy standing on the other side. "What?"

His brusqueness admittedly squashed most of the audacity she had gathered. "There's some pasta left," she said carefully. "Are you hungry?"

He scowled. "Not particularly."

"The guys just took off for the night," Agura added. "They're gone for at least four hours."

He glanced at his watch, and reflexively, she checked her own. **7:48.**

"I'll be there in a minute," Vert finally said. When he did arrive, a steaming bowl of pasta and three meatballs, the number he always took, sat at his place at the head of the table. Agura was in the kitchen adjacent, cleaning up and humming along to the radio. It was the only noise between them for multiple minutes.

"So," she finally cleared her throat. Agura stood in the threshold of the kitchen and dining room, wiping a pot dry. "Everything… okay?"

"Fine," he muttered.

"Vert…" Agura set the pot down and joined him at the table. "I know you too well to believe that."

He idly twirled his fork.

"Don't…" she took a deep breath. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you've been kinda stressed lately."

"Stressed?" The fork clattered down into his bowl, and his eyes flashed up to her.

Timidly, Agura gave a tiny nod.

"Of course I'm stressed!" Vert snapped, and she jumped a little at the sudden assertion. "We have to deal with Sage's evil side of the family now, all of whom are about ten times stronger and smarter than the Sark or Vandals, and I have to make sure that everybody who enters that BattleZone comes out of it! And not only that, but even when we DO defeat these guys, they just respawn and come back fighting even harder! And don't even get me started on having Tezz join because oh my God, dealing with him is like sticking a bratty kid in a candy store and telling him not to touch anything. So I have to not only do all of that but then still be the perfect role model for Zoom and not lose it every six minutes, I still have to be everybody's best friend and the cool guy while getting the job done, and then of course there's tax reports and chore charts and getting groceries and everything else that goes along with housing eight totally different people under one roof! It's insanity, especially when you take Stanford and Tezz's egos into account! I don't know how I'm supposed to get everything done!" He slammed his palms down on the table and exhaled heavily, trying to regain the cool he had so clearly just lost.

She waited.

Finally, "Sorry," Vert muttered halfheartedly. "That was kind of a lot."

"It's a lot to have on your shoulders, too," she said softly.

"Yeah, actually, it kind of is!" He snapped, but she knew the aggression wasn't directed at her.

Agura thought for a long time about what to say next.

"You know, maybe you just need to take a little break from it all," she started nervously, trying to figure out how in the world she was going to bring her proposition up.

"Ha!" His laugh was more a harsh exhalation of air than anything. "Now that's funny."

"I'm serious." She pressed on. "Just for, like, tonight. You need something to take your mind off of things."

"I doubt that's possible, but I'll hear you out nonetheless," he frowned, but there was the tiniest flicker of intrigue in his eyes.

"Well," Agura took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. "The guys are all out for the night and won't be back for hours. It's really just the two of us, and we've got the whole Hub to ourselves, except for Sage who's charging and never comes up to our bedrooms anyways."

Vert's eyebrows lifted, and he slowly set his fork down. "Are you… Are you actually suggesting what I think you are?"

Agura shrugged, trying her hardest to make it casual and to keep the flirty smirk on her face. "You know what they say about exercise and stress relief."

She had never seen him looked so shocked. Slack-jawed, actually, as he tried to process what she was telling him.

"Wait wait wait," Vert shook his head. "Let me get this straight: you want to…have sex, because I'm a little _stressed?_"

"Honey, you're way past 'a little stressed'," Agura frowned. "Seriously, Vert, we're all worried about you!"

"Oh, so now the whole team is in on this!" Vert threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "Who was the first to throw you under the bus, Spinner?"

"Actually, this was just my idea," she rolled her eyes. "Like it or not, Vert, I care about your mental health, and if there's one thing I know about teenage boys, this is nothing but a nice little pick-me-up."

"So you're serious about this," he stated flatly. "This is something that you want to happen."

"It's not even a big deal if you think about it," she shrugged, forcing nonchalance. "We'd be just like friends with benefits. For not even a single night."

"Except we wouldn't be _just_ friends with benefits," Vert argued. "We'd be two people, who fight, work and live together, every hour of the day, who hooked up once and never had their friendship recover from it. And I don't want that to be us, Agura!"

"And that's totally up to you!" She said right back. "It'll only be awkward if WE make it that way. So stop making it awkward!"

"I can't help it! What if the sex is bad, or, something weird happens—"

"You and I are amongst the hottest people in the Hub. The sex won't be bad."

"You don't know that! What if I'm secretly terrible in bed?"

"Are you?" She challenged.

"Well, no," he snorted.

"Well, great!"

"Okay, Agura, slow down. This is crazy! I don't even know how we would go about this," Vert said. "Like, do we go to my room, or—"

"Yeah," Agura surprised herself with her confidence. "Let's go to your room. I bet you're not even that hard to turn on," she added with a wink, stepping in front of him to lead and making sure to strut her stuff along the way.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," he replied, trying to keep his cool. "And would you quit it with that ridiculous walk? You look like you dislocated your hip bones."

"Alright, that's not a thing, and I think you like it," Agura flounced, swaying from side to side even more.

"Well that's where you're wrong, sorry to say," he chuckled as they approached his bedroom door.

"You don't have to lie to me, Vert. It's okay to be an ass guy," Agura gave him her trademark smirk, and he pretended to roll his eyes. Secretly he was terrified by her new, femme fatale attitude.

Well, terrified and yet captivated beyond measure. He scanned his palm and opened his bedroom door, suddenly worried about the cleanliness of said quarters. The floor was clear enough, just a few piles of laundry here and there. His sheets were rumpled; Vert couldn't recall the last time he had actually made his bed.

"Well, here we are," he stated. Agura, standing next to him, surveyed his room.

"Yeah," she echoed softly. Neither of them spoke for a minute.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He turned to her tentatively. "Because really, it's very generous, but whether I'm stressed out or not shouldn't be your concern, and I really would hate for things to be awkward—"

"Then let's not make them awkward," Agura said firmly. "Let's just be two friends, bored and on their own for the night who wanted to have a little fun. We can use fake names," she added with a playful grin. "I'll be Angel and you can be Babycakes."

"Damn, I wanted to be Angel," Vert pouted, and she laughed. He tried a different suggestion. "What about real names? I don't want to feel like I'm in a porno."

"What about…." Agura snapped her fingers in thought. "In that friends with benefits movie with Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, their names are Dylan and Jamie," she suggested.

"Those are terrible names," Vert pointed out. "And both kind of unisex, too," he made a face.

"They are, aren't they?" Agura frowned. "What about…Noah? From The Notebook," Agura offered. "I can be Allie. Y—y'know, if you want."

"I didn't know that you were into romantic movies," he cocked his head curiously.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Noah," Agura said huskily, trying not to laugh. However, Vert did it for her.

"This is ridiculous," he shook his head in amusement. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Because I'd bet fifty dollars that those tax reports of yours haven't even crossed your mind since we started talking about this," Agura raised her eyebrows in challenge, and he nodded, defeated.

"Okay, you got me. But we're never going to get to the sex part unless one of us gets over ourselves and makes a move," he pointed out.

"Well I mean, you're the boy…" Agura bit her lip and gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.

"Oh, you're choosing _now_ to follow traditional gender roles?" He rolled his eyes.

"Touché," Agura acquiesced. "But one of us is going to have to do it eventually," she pursed her lips in thought.

"Let's play rock paper scissors for it," Vert shrugged. "That way it's at least fair."

"Best two out of three?" Agura asked, and he nodded. "Okay, deal. Loser has to…kiss the winner?"

"How about a long kiss?" Vert pondered. "Really get things going?" He waggled his eyebrows, and she laughed.

"Alright, but it has to be a good one. Like, _really good,_" Agura agreed.

"Ready?" He held out his hand, and she matched him. "Rock, paper, scissors!"

Agura lost. She took a deep breath.

"Okay, rock, paper, scissors!"

This time, Vert threw the wrong hand.

"Tiebreaker," he chuckled anxiously. "Ready?"

Agura nodded.

"Rock, paper, _scissors!_"

She squeezed a single eye open.

His open hand hovered over her closed fist.

"Paper wraps rock," Vert offered apologetically, the perfect mixture of adorable and awkward.

"Damn," Agura sighed. "Okay." She took a deep breath as they relaxed their hands. "You know what? Let's do this." The huntress wrapped her arms around Vert's neck and pulled him closer to her. She hooked one of her legs around the back of his and tucked the other's knee against him. She met his eyes for a split second, then took one final breath and leaned forward, tilted her head, and pressed her lips softly against his own.

His response was stiff shock, for what felt like ages. A vast crevice of burning regret cracked open in her chest, and Agura pulled away, cheeks flaming with mortification. Vert was staring at her intensely, his eyes clouded with something she couldn't identify, countenance inscrutably frozen. She opened her mouth to apologize and in that same instant he suddenly grabbed her and kissed her desperately. He brought his hands to her waist and pulled her against him, and her leg hooked tighter. Without even realizing it had happened Agura found herself with her legs wrapped around her captain's waist, kissing him fiercely. He held her tightly, strong legs supporting both of them and wonderfully muscular biceps keeping her steady. She kissed him harder, felt that new and exciting warmth flooding through her body, and separated from him only to catch her breath before their lips crashed again, this time frantically, as if each was the other's air.

He had forgotten that something could feel so good.

He didn't have to think, or worry that he was doing something wrong. Everything about her just made him feel comfortable and euphoric and grateful, all at once. He couldn't put his finger on it, but being with Agura just felt _right_. It came so naturally. Ever since the team's commencement he had felt nothing but the constant pressure to succeed, to be the best leader he could. He couldn't remember the last time he had acted only for himself. The captain could finally relax; know that he was doing something he was guaranteed to succeed at. There were no calls to agonize over, no decisions to be made. There was only her, and everything about her just felt so good. The intimacy between them was indescribable; the strange bond of being both friends and partners. He wouldn't have traded it for anything.

The sex was beautiful, messy, exhilarating imperfection, in the way that they fit together and in the great explosion that surged through them both. Their voices rose and fell with moans, teasing and laughter. Even the verbal exchange was so familiar to him; their own special mix of friendly and flirtatious. She made him feel safe, comfortable, right, worthy. Adept. He hadn't realized how badly he had needed that reinforcement as of late.

For the moment, Agura forgot that he was her leader. She forgot that he had watched her track Vandals and that he had clashed swords with a Red Sentient. She even forgot that her room was just across the illuminated blue hallway, right outside his door. The thing that had brought them together, the giant underground base that surrounded them, gone.

He was Vert. He wasn't the Crimson One, the captain, the one with fire in his spirit that the prophecy had foretold of. They didn't fight mutant animals or killer robots together. Their teammates, their roles, all vanished from her mind.

He was just Vert. Vert Wheeler, with his cocky, devil-may-care attitude and the always-present playful twinkle in those captivating blue eyes. Vert with the strong arms that held her like the most precious thing in the world and pulled her down onto his bed, with the amazingly chiseled abs that rose to meet her own stomach. Vert with his wonderfully powerful legs that could make her body feel things previously unknown to her and the hands that so gently caressed her back and breast. Vert, the gentleman shaker of universes and producer of orgasms and Vert with a look like none other in his eyes when he was brought to the height of pleasure. Vert, who had a deep and husky sensuousness to his voice, previously unheard of and discovered only when, somewhere between a groan and a gasp, he cried out her name.

In that indefinable time they spent connected in the way only two people can, he was just Vert. Perfect, wonderful, reality-defying Vert. And when they separated, and fell back onto his sheets with that beautiful warmth slowly rippling through them, and his hand found hers underneath the sheets and squeezed tightly, he was still just Vert.

They lay there together, catching their breath. Agura laid her arm and head across his bare chest and rested there, tucking her leg up across his.

His arms held her close and his lips were at her ear as he whispered to her, "Stay the night?"

She mumbled a sound of vague affirmation into his chest, which rose and fell with his breathing and eventually lulled her to sleep.


	2. The Morning After

**A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you're having a great holiday break. Thanks so much to those of you who reviewed, you guys are the best and I'm glad you liked! And now, for chapter two. Read on.**

The magic still lingered over them as the sun rose to greet the next day. She woke to Vert stroking rhythmically up and down her spine, a sensuous massage that occasionally dipped down to the back of her bare thighs or slyly around the curve of her breast.

"Good morning, handsy," she laughed, and caught in the act, he did the same. Agura moved her arm off of his stomach in an effort to prop herself up but swept her hand right over his crotch in the process.

"Oh, and good _morning_!" she exclaimed without thinking, surprised but a little flattered. Vert chuckled, the tiniest bit embarrassed at being caught so soon, but then shimmied under the sheets so that they were both lying on their sides, each facing the other.

"Ready for round two?" He asked with a singular, cocky raised eyebrow.

"I know that somebody is," she bobbed her head in the direction of where his groin would be underneath the sheets.

"Oh, I don't think I'm the only one," Vert smirked, and without another word slipped a hand between her legs. Agura gasped in surprise at first but he easily worked through it until he had her pressed against his chest and clutching at his back, begging for him. It wasn't as glamorous as the night had been, wasn't nearly as idealistic and passionate. It was not the unspoken language of love coursing through their bodies and it was a far cry from the romantic, sheet-entangled tryst that had encompassed them in the previous night. In fact, their little morning rendezvous had them compromised as nothing but two lustful teenagers, each trying to satisfy a carnal desire for the other.

And they were good at it. Vert and Agura had each other taken care of within the next several minutes.

"Oh, God, I'll never be stressed out again," he just about flopped back onto his mattress and groaned delightedly.

"Good," Agura tried to catch her breath. "I-I-I-I'm glad," she added as her senses made a momentary attempt to climb back up to cloud nine, and then leveled.

He turned on his side, about to reply, but as his eyes fell upon her the words left his mind. Agura's delightfully swollen lips were parted and she stared up at the ceiling with dreamy, half-closed eyes. Her hair fanned out on his pillowcase like a halo and her chest heaved just the slightest as she tried to catch her breath. Smooth cocoa cheeks flushed with the softest pink while dark, fluttering eyelashes captivated him, and he fell completely speechless at her innocent beauty.

She rolled over on her side to face him.

"What?" Agura asked, her cheeks dimpling into that signature grin.

He took a deep breath. "Last night… I needed that. More than I realized. So, thank you. Seriously."

She smiled softly at him. "You're welcome."

His next words tumbled out of his mouth almost by accident. "Are you doing anything on Friday?"

Agura pondered this, and then shook her head. "I don't think so. Why?"

"Do you…want to go out to dinner with me?" He asked honestly, praying that she would say yes.

"Now Vert, what happened to 'no emotions'?" Agura teased, only to cover up her own delight and surprise.

"No, no, nothing like that," he propped himself up, leaning on his arm, and shook his head immediately. "I just… well, quite frankly, Agura, we just slept with each other, twice in the past twelve hours I might add. I feel like I owe you dinner."

She considered this. "You make a good point. And I do like dinner."

"Sweet," he nodded. "Where do you wanna go?"

Agura yawned, "I dunno," and rolled over onto her other side, "It's your town," so that he faced her bare back (talk about temptation). "Surprise me. But for now I'm getting more sleep." He chuckled and scooted closer to her so that their bodies were touching once more, and wrapped his arm around her waist, sighing happily into her neck. Agura was pleasantly surprised by his actions; their only contact so far had been not only purely physical but had served a certain purpose. She wondered, briefly, if what they were doing was breaking the previous rule of friendship, and decided just as quickly that she didn't care. Wrapped in his warmth, Agura fell easily back asleep.

The next wake-up call was far less romantic. The huntress opened her eyes several hours later to find his digital clock, blinking cheerily at her that it was almost one in the afternoon.

"Shit!" She screeched, jumping out of his bed in a wild search for her clothes (which had been rather passionately torn off by him the previous night). She completely forgot that she wasn't wearing a bra, so the jump up was rather… er, _dislocating._ "Ow, shit again," Agura muttered, digging through the piles of laundry on the floor with one hand and using her other arm to support the girls.

"What?" Vert had woken up by then, and as he looked at the clock his eyes widened. "Ohhhh… shit."

"_WHAT_ are we going to say to the others?" Agura threw her arms up in the air (once her bra had been fastened, thank God). "They're _never_ going to let us forget this, you know how they are!" She cried.

"Hey, it's fine, don't worry," Vert soothed, getting up out of bed and casually stretching. Agura was momentarily distracted by the almost pendulum-like motion of his rather impressive endowments, and the tiniest of sighs escaped her body as she remembered exactly how he had used them the past night.

"We're the boss of them, we can just make them run laps or something." Vert was still talking and she shifted her eyes away just in the nick of time. "It's no big." (His word choice was ironic, considering which part of his anatomy she had just been paying attention to).

"I am going to get catcalled and propositioned by every single one of those boys except probably Tezz and Sherman if they find out!" Agura reminded him nervously. "That's so embarrassing!"

"Are you embarrassed of _your_ idea to sleep with _me?_" He raised an eyebrow in amusement at her distress. "Because you sure sounded like you enjoyed it last night." The corners of his lips upturned in a cocky grin as Vert pulled on a pair of boxers, and Agura rolled her eyes.

"Don't even _try_ to pin half of that noise on ME," she tossed her hair, which had come loose in the night. "You should just be glad that our rooms have been soundproofed ever since Stanford started talking in his sleep," she pointed out, tugging on a t-shirt.

"You know that's backwards, right?" He grinned, pointing at her top. Agura huffed and pulled her arms inside the sleeve-holes to spin it around.

"Ooh. Damn. Now _that's_ sexy." Vet could barely contain his amusement as she wriggled the shirt around her torso. "You look like an octopus," he chuckled. Agura stuck her tongue out at him and writhed her arms within the shirt even more, and Vert fell back onto his bed laughing at her. Agura shook her head, giving up on him entirely as she finished getting dressed. When he was still reclining languidly on his rumpled sheets watching her a minute later, she groaned and rummaged around on his floor until she came up with her hair binder.

"Would you quit goofing around and put some clothes on?" She shot it at his chest rubber-band style.

"I'm watching you get dressed," Vert replied contentedly.

Agura looked down at her clothed self in confusion. "I'm already dressed."

"Well in that case, I guess that I should do something about that," he grinned and stood up.

"Ah-ah-ah!" She shook a finger at him. "A girl can only take so much of all…" Agura gesticulated to his beautiful and not to mention distractingly carved upper body, "All _that,_" she bit her lip in self-restraint.

"Oh, but Agura," he ran his hands up and down her hips, and she involuntarily shivered. _So this is what rippling muscles look like._

"I'm just so relaxed and stress-free," Vert smiled innocently. With all of the willpower in the world, she escaped his grasp and plucked one of his t-shirts from the floor.

"And I'm an absolute mess," she countered, handing it to him and running a hand through her loose hair. "I need a shower, and I need a meal, and _then _we can talk. Where's that ponytail…"

"Here," he held it out to her but pulled the elastic back when she reached for it. "I've never seen your hair down before."

"And now you understand why," she told him sweetly, grasping for the binder once again.

"I like it," he told her. "You should wear it like this more often."

"It's not exactly the most effective hairdo for driving an ATV upside-down, Vert," Agura put her hands on her hips.

"Then wear it like this for me," he said. "On Friday." He could have sworn a blush colored her cheeks, but Vert was so unaccustomed to the sight that he could as well have imagined it.

"O—okay," Agura finally acquiesced, and he handed the ponytail back. She twisted her hair back up and plopped down on his bed. "Have you decided where to take me yet?" Agura asked casually, a teasing grin on her face. The mild personality transformation did not go unnoticed by him.

"You know, there's this really nice McDonalds a few counties over I might take you to…" Vert mused, finally and mercifully putting on the t-shirt. She exhaled in relief while he laughed to himself. "Nah, I have a couple places in mind," he amended, tugging on a pair of jeans.

"Awesome," Agura nodded and stood up. "Well, um, I desperately need to shower, so…" She inched uncertainly towards the door.

"Yeah, we should probably make an appearance before anyone gets suspicious," he agreed awkwardly.

"Yeah." She nodded. It was painfully obvious that neither of them knew what to say. Agura leaned against his door, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. She ran a hand through her haphazard ponytail, and he rocked back and forth from heel to toe.

She hummed.

He chuckled.

"We just slept together," Agura finally blurted; the silence too suffocating to be ignored.

"Yeah," he agreed, with an adorably half-quirked smile that made her blush. "I enjoyed it."

"M—me too," she blushed.

"And now we're going to have dinner," he continued.

"As friends," she clarified, and he nodded.

"On Friday."

"Friday." Agura repeated.

"Cool?" He raised an eyebrow. She nodded.

"Cool."

They were finally able to part ways. Agura showered, rinsing away everything but the memories from the previous night and trying to process it all. She had seen Vert, her captain, totally and completely in the nude. She had slept with Vert, her captain, not just once in a twenty-four hour period but in fact twice (and seriously enjoyed it). She had spent the night in the room of Vert, her captain; she had let Vert, her captain, hold her as they slept. She had let Vert, her captain, witness a rare and unprecedented side of her.

And Agura had no idea how Vert, her captain, was going to view her in regards to that. His thoughts and actions, to her chagrin, were totally out of her control. And so she tried to find a way to reinstate said own control.

_You know what, I've seen him naked too,_" Agura thought while showering._ This is a two-way street we're walking down! He hasn't seen any more of me than I have of him! Not that there's anything left to be seen, but still, it's an even playing field. And HE was the one who pushed for morning sex, not me. That counts for something, right?_

She combed her hair out, put it up, dressed for the day and stepped out into the hallway, ignoring the fact that she was the tiniest bit sore _down there._ The idea of facing her teammates without an excuse terrified the huntress, but fortunately they were nowhere to be seen. Famished, she made her way into the kitchen. It was deserted, but she could hear cries coming from the rec room. Agura rummaged around in the refrigerator, disappointed at the lack of findings, while her ears picked up on someone coming in behind her.

"Agura?"

It was Sherman. Thank God.

"Hey Sherm!" She spun around brightly, concealing a wince as her legs twisted without warning the rest of her anatomy.

"Hey, long time no see," he joked awkwardly, getting a granola bar from the pantry. "I swear, this video game marathon of Spinner's has kept everyone holed up for hours! You and Vert are lucky that you guys didn't get sucked in."

Agura stared at him in disbelief. "Video game marathon?"

"Yeah," Sherman looked at her strangely. "Didn't Spinner tell you? He's been obsessively determined to beat Tezz in a game ever since Tezz cost him his two hundred and fifty game win streak and he claims he needs all the support he can get."

"Wow. Right! Uh, yeah, I guess I was lucky enough to get out of it. Vert and I have just been working on battle plans, and stuff. All day," Agura said anxiously. "Well I uh, hate to miss out, but, gotta get back to work and all, you know, those battle plans don't, um, plan themselves!" She plastered a wide grin on her face. "Have fun with Spinner and everyone else!"

"I wish…" Sherman groaned, lumbering back into the rec room. Agura just about fell to the floor in relief.

_Nobody had even noticed._

She grabbed a loaf of bread from the refrigerator and nearly jumped for joy.

_NOBODY had even NOTICED. _They were home free! The boys had been stuck together in that room for hours! She and Vert were in the clear!

"This is the best news I've gotten all day," Agura murmured joyously to herself, doing a little dance around the kitchen and not caring how ridiculous she looked. "This is the best day of my liiiiiife!" She sang quietly, energized beyond belief. The huntress felt as if she could go gallivanting down the hallway and jump Vert's bones for all she was worth—

_Alright, whoa, cool it, Agura._ She caught herself and immediately stopped dancing. _Just tone it down a notch and stop thinking about…_

_Tone…_

_Muscle tone, everywhere you looked. Vert was a carved statue, a Greek god, the paragon of the male anatomy. In a word, he was downright dreamy. She recalled him this morning in her mind's eye, envisioned him in the shower he was probably taking right now with hot water sliding down his back, steam fogging the glass and tiny droplets of water catching and throwing light to one another like miniature mirrors across his physique…_

"Dear God," Agura muttered under her breath, in mild embarrassment. "One night together and I'm already a girly, quivering, slave-to-my-desires mess."

She caught her reflection in the blurry microwave glass.

"You'd better pull it together real fast, Agura," she commanded sternly.

_**OR you could go and join him in that shower, **_a naughty voice in the back of her head pointed out.

"No. No no no no no, no, I am not doing this, no way, NO," Agura shook her head furiously, as if her mind was as easily cleared as an Etch-a-Sketch. "Think good thoughts, missy, good, CLEAN thoughts…" she murmured. "It was just a one-night thing, it's not supposed to be a big deal. Stop thinking about him, damnit!" Agura layered curses in with the sandwich she was fixing, and spent the rest of her Tuesday in the same frame of mind. Spinner's all-day tournament against Tezz was wrapped up; the former with only one single victory to proclaim and the latter exasperated beyond words. But most importantly, Vert and Agura were entirely in the clear.


	3. One Day at a Time

**Chapter Three: One Day at a Time**

The following day, Wednesday, the kitchen radio was out to get her. Agura had finally gotten out grocery shopping that morning, and she was sorting commodities into the pantry (hoping it would provide a distraction from her captain) when the first incident occurred.

_Cause I may be bad_

_But I'm perfectly good at it_

_Sex in the air_

_I don't care_

_I love the—_

"Alright, nope…" She muttered, jabbing one of the preset buttons so that another song came through.

_Yeah, you made me feel_

_Shiny and new_

_Like a virgin_

_Touched for the very first time—_

"Oh, for the love of…" She tried another station.

_I don't want_

_Anybody else_

_When I think about you_

_I touch—_

Another button was pressed in despair.

_Love shack, that's where it's at_

_Huggin' and a-kissin'_

_Dancin' and a-lovin'_

_Wearin' next to nothin'_

_'Cause it's hot as an oven!_

"ARGH!" She finally gave up on the blasted thing and pressed 'play' for whatever CD the player held at the moment, one of Stanford's, probably. Some sort of dubstep-y beat started up, and she was just thinking that a song without words would be wonderful right about now when…

_Maybe I need some rehab_

_Or maybe just need some sleep_

_I got a sick obsession_

_I'm seeing it in my dreams_

Agura just about smashed the thing right then and there.

"Luv, would you just pick a song and bloody stick with it?" Stanford's voice sprung from behind her just as she was turning the player off, and Agura huffed.

"Why is there even a Ke$ha CD in here? This base is supposed to be full of MEN!" She accused.

"Well don't look at me, little miss crotchety—"

"Oh, you did NOT just call me CROTCHety!" She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "The entire MULTIVERSE is against me today!"

Stanford blinked several times and then, very slowly and with hands raised in surrender, began retreating out of the kitchen.

"Uh, wouldn't recommend messing with Agura today, chaps," he remarked upon re-entering the rec room.

"Yeah, she seems a little wigged-out," Sherman agreed.

"Maybe our fearless leader's stress is making its way down the line of command," Spinner snorted.

"That's not exactly—" Tezz raised a finger in argument, but everyone collectively groaned, thus shutting him up.

"I hope you're wrong, Spinner, because I can't handle having _two_ people with Vert's attitude in one Hub," Stanford said.

"Yeah, I don't know how much longer I can handle the old sourpuss. I mean, he ruined Meatball Monday. Meatball Monday!" Spinner cried.

"Sourpuss?"

Hot, burning embarrassment at being caught flooded the room, and guilty heads turned to the blond that stood in the door.

"Vert!" Spinner covered. "We weren't just talking about you!"

"Yeah, okay," the captain rolled his eyes, moving into the room and dropping onto the couch. "So, what are we watching?"

The heads that had originally turned to him now came with dropped jaws.

"Th—the game…" Stanford answered slowly. "You're not gonna yell at us because we're not training, or something?"

Vert shook his head. "Guys, of course not! I mean, okay, I'll admit that I've been kind of a dick lately, but that's over now, I promise. Agura and I talked about it, and I realized that there's nothing to stress about. Alright?"

"Wow." Spinner whistled. "Thank you Agura."

Vert just smiled. _You have no idea._ God, he had forgotten how _fantastic_ getting laid could be! The crimson one had enjoyed more than his fair share of romantic encounters in his pre-BF5 days, but in the year or so that had transpired ever since driving into that first Stormshock, his sex life had been gravely nonexistent. Sure, he had flirted with Grace, and he knew for a fact that every male on that team of his had undergone at least one _naughty_ dream involving Agura; but the real thing, he was ecstatic to now know, was _much_ moregratifying. It was nice to wake up with the girl in your arms, rather than both literally and figuratively in your dreams. Having Agura spend the night had been everything he ever dreamed it would be, and the memories were more than enough to take his mind off of things for a little while. The only problem was, he couldn't get his wayward mind off of _her_. Every time he passed her in the hallway she would give him that adorably awkward little grin. He had dug his fingernails into his palms on multiple occasions in order to stop his constant fantasies of pinning her against one of the Hub's cyan walls. As if the daydreams weren't bad enough, his mind taunted him every night without fail. Just glancing at his bed pulled up the delicious memories of crawling on top of her, the softness of her skin and every sensual dip and curve. He truly understood the predicament of the metaphorical kid in a candy store in that he had a constant, undeniable urge to _touch_ her, everywhere and all of the time. Oh, and that damn_ Shocksuit! _The poor lost captain had never experienced lust to such a degree, and they had only spent one night together! He hoped that there was a 'so far' hiding at the end of that sentence, for his biological urges would be in big trouble if he kept these fantasies up much longer.

Yes, Vert wanted Agura, desperately and without exception. The yearning had increased tenfold.

His only worry was, would he be so lucky as to have her again?

Later that day, Spinner strolled up to Agura in one of the hallways of the Hub.

"Agura Ibaden, Vert is a new man," he announced triumphantly. She gave him a wary look.

"What do you mean?" Alarm bells were ringing in her head. Was she about to be propositioned by the team's hacking expert?

"He said you talked to him about stress and stuff," Spinner continued earnestly, "and on behalf of the rest of us, I'm here to thank you. He watched the game with us for like, a full hour without even talking about 'responsibilities'! It was just like old times!"

"That's awesome," Agura smiled brightly. Part of her was grateful that the secret remained secret, and the other part was simply flattered. She had singlehandedly removed the great burden that was her darling leader's tension! Even her teammates had noticed, and it had barely even been forty-eight hours!

"Seriously, he's a changed man! Whatever you said must have really hit home," Spinner persisted.

"Um, yeah, guess so," Agura forced another smile. They were nearing the rec room now, Agura's original target. She had been hoping a good book would take her mind off of things.

"What exactly was it you told him, anyway?" Spinner pressed as they entered the room. He seemed to be following her without any destination of his own, a favorite if pesky habit of the gamer's whenever he became bored. "Because us guys tried to talk to him about it and—"

Agura sank into her favorite easy chair. "Spin, I'm very tired, and I'm just trying to read in private, okay?"

"Oh." Spinner frowned. "Sorry, nevermind." He was obviously hurt. Agura felt like a mother pushing away her hyperactive five-year-old as the gamer retreated from the room, but at the same time she was going to start sweating if he continued to interrogate her.

Spinner decided to seek out other, more welcoming company.

"You know, I'm going to have to seriously look into that theory about stress making its way down the line of command," he walked into Sherman and Tezz's lab.

"Gah!" Tezz was startled to the point of firing his gauntlet at a Sentient computer screen, which shattered in mid-air and sent sparks flying at the other Cortez in the room.

"Bro! Get out!" Sherman exclaimed angrily, as he cowered from the cobalt shards.

"Sorry…" Spinner winced, turning on his heel before Tezz's own wrath could ignite. Maybe he needed to find more welcoming company elsewhere.

Thursday was no easier on Agura, as a text popped up from Grace.

"**Gossip update get here ASAP!"**

Eyebrows raised in curiosity, the huntress told Sherman she was heading out and left for Grace's apartment.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Oh my God, you SLUT!" Grace was screaming. Agura had just disclosed the vaguest version possible of the story, without naming Vert or the circumstances (it had really just been a reluctant, stammered-out, sentence-long confession, but Grace was acting as if Agura had dug up the Holy Grail).

"Grace! Quiet!" The huntress hissed, her cheeks flaming. Grace had just divulged a long and detailed account of _her_ behavior the previous night, but for some reason, this was a hundred times more mortifying.

"Agura! You...you and… AHHHHHH!" Grace was jumping around and clapping her hands together like a schoolgirl. "Oh my God, this is so EXCITING! YOU HAD SEX!"

"GRACE!" Agura screeched. Grace's apartment was a nice, if claustrophobic, escape from the confines of the Hub, but its walls were paper-thin. "Shut UP!"

"I'm sorry! I just can't even get over it!" Grace cackled. She fell back onto her bed and kicked her legs up in the air in excitement, and then rapidly sat up. "Agura, you _fucked_ someone." She said seriously.

"Don't say it like that!" Agura blushed in mortification. The way Grace described it made it sound so…_dirty._ And with Vert, it hadn't been at all. It had been passionate, and caring, and sweet, but a far cry from shameful or worthy of such a derisive description.

"Wait, you mean the f-word?" Grace's mouth twisted up into an amused smile. "Don't TELL me you're afraid of the f-word!"

"I'm not _afraid _of it!" Agura defended. "I just…don't like it. It's… _unladylike,_" she lied.

"Oh, since when have _you_ ever been worried about being ladylike?" Grace snorted, and Agura, ever so ladylike, stuck out her tongue. "Okay, what do you want me to call it then? Relations? Fornication? Intercourse? Copulation? Coitus? Doing the deed? A roll in the hay? _Making love?_" Grace scrunched her face up into the most hoity-toity expression she could muster with the last one. "Ooh, how do you feel about _intimacy?_" She drawled, and fluttered her lashes pretentiously.

"Why do you know so many ways to say it—?"

"I just never thought it would happen! My little Agura, sleeping around like a beautiful, fierce sorority whore. I love it!" Grace squealed, smacking her friend on the arm. "When did you grow up so fast? I didn't even think you LIKED boys for a while!"

"Okay, this is getting hurtful," Agura grumbled.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," Grace took a deep breath and sat down at the end of her bed, facing Agura. The waitress's apartment was small, and her bed usually doubled as a couch. And table. And closet. "Wait." Grace held her hand up and then gave Agura an intrigued look. "You didn't take it up the back door, did you?"

"The back door… No!" Agura exclaimed, a little repulsed as she finally grasped what her friend had meant. "Ugh, God no!"

"Hey, I'm just asking!" Grace held her hands up defensively. "Lord knows you'd make a good candidate," she muttered under her breath, and Agura rolled her eyes.

"Okay, but seriously, Aggy, you _have _to tell me more about this guy!"

"Grace, I can't," Agura apologized. "We're keeping it just between me and him, I'm not even supposed to be talking to you about this!" It was a bit of a white lie. Grace was one of Agura's closer (and only, in the town at least) female friends, and though Agura trusted her, Grace was known to be gossipy. She couldn't reveal too much to her friend lest it spread throughout the few teenage circles in Handler Corners— namely, the Battle Force 5.

"Besides, you don't know him, anyways. He's from one of the other counties; we met at a bar," Agura lied again.

"Ugh. _Fine,_" Grace pouted. "So you really did it in the morning, too?" She demanded, eager once again.

"Yes, we did," Agura turned bright red.

"Agura, that like, SEALS it. Damn, Africa, who knew you had it in you?" Grace laughed.

Agura would have been more offended if Grace hadn't shown her 'Mean Girls' the other week. "Can we change the subject now?"

"Um, are you kidding?" "Grace snorted. "Tell me more about mystery man!"

"I mean, he's…" Agura bit her tongue. "He's… great," she said vaguely.

"What was it like? Was he big? Little?" Grace rolled over onto her stomach and faced Agura with interest. "Wait, I guess you wouldn't know… Was he strong? Gentle? Was it romantic? Is he tall? What color are his eyes? Is he a quiet one or a screamer?"

"Grace!" Agura laughed, overwhelmed.

"What? I'm curious!"

They chatted for another hour or so, Agura too vaguely for Grace's liking and Grace far too descriptive in turn.

"So, when are you gonna do it again?" Grace bounced her eyebrows.

"I mean, we're going out to dinner tomorrow night, so…" Agura pretended to shrug, and Grace squealed.

"Oooooh, so he's a gentleman! Where are you going?" She demanded.

"Um, no way am I telling you!" Agura laughed. Grace stuck out her tongue and flipped her the bird. "And even if I wanted to, he's surprising me."

"Eeeeeeeek! Agura! That! Is! So! Cute!" Grace punctuated each exclamation by thumping Agura with her pillow.

"Ow! Okay, okay, ow, it's pretty cute, OW! Would you stop that?" Agura exclaimed.

"I can't! It's just so! CUTE!" Grace thwacked her once again. "God, you're going on a _date!_ He must be the real deal, most of the guys I get with just fu—, sorry, _fornicate_ and flee, if you know what I mean," Grace pursed her lips.

"Grace, you don't have to let guys do that to you," Agura reminded her friend.

"I dunno," Grace shrugged. "I mean, you still get some, it's so much easier than the whole relationship thing, and everybody knows that friends with benefits _never_ works out the way it's supposed to," she added.

Agura blinked, caught off guard. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, honey, haven't you seen the movies?" Grace asked, as if she couldn't believe it. "One of them always falls for the other. Well, in the movies both of them fall for each other, but in reality where the rest of us live?" She shook her head. "Take it from me, Aggy, someone always gets hurt." She stood up, reluctant to discuss it any further. Grace never divulged her romantic failures with Agura; she preferred to share vague (but sometimes explicitly detailed) experience and general knowledge. Agura had never been bothered by it before, but now Grace's ambiguity was driving her crazy.

"I've gotta get to the diner," she said, tugging off her tee. Agura wasn't ruffled in the least by Grace's brazen disrobing; in fact this was how their conversations often ended. "But hey, cheers to you, Agura. Keep me posted, mmkay?"

"I will," Agura nodded. "Have fun at work!"

"Just let yourself out!" Grace hollered back. Agura shrugged, and did exactly that.

The next day was Friday.

Vert had scheduled early training, and it went as planned. When the session ended and their teammates filed out, he called her over.

"What's up?" Agura forced nonchalance.

"Dress nice tonight," he instructed without looking at her, erasing the diagrams he had drawn on a Sentient monitor. He looked both aloofly casual and strikingly authoritative, and for whatever reason, it was almost turning her on.

"Yeah, _okay,_" she smirked. Secretly, Agura's stomach did a little flip. She hadn't dressed up since before she had joined the team! Her attire had become _more_ perfunctory, if that were possible. She lived with seven other guys, none of whom she had ever planned to entice.

_Well, until now…_

Point was, Agura Ibaden simply didn't dress up. There had never been a reason to.

_Well, until now…_

"I'm serious," Vert said. He appeared to be absorbed in something else on the computer now.

"Dressing up is so…_dressy,_" she huffed. He chuckled and finally met her eyes.

"Just this once." God, those baby blues were just piercing. "It'll be fun."

"Fun?" She arched an eyebrow, taking a few steps backward.

"Fun."

She paused at the door. A ludicrous amount of sexual tension hung in the air.

"Okay."

"Cool." He grinned.

"Cool," she echoed, and slipped out as he turned back to his screens. Agura made her way towards the Hub's residential upper half with an unfamiliar tingly sensation in her stomach. Unbeknownst to her, Vert felt the same way. The computer had only been a distraction from having to face those enthralling caramel eyes.

And now he was going to have to look straight into them.

At dinner.

Without staring too conspicuously.

Without accidentally getting lost in them.

Without flirting too heavily, or making a move, ignoring his every instinct.

But, if he was lucky, he would get to stare into them all night long.


End file.
